Sunday, September 27, 2009

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. Primarily because I find the political and racial atmosphere in A-merry-ca to be so fascinating.

Anyway, my man Matef from Socal shot me an e-mail today, which led me to the following article from Naomi Klein. It's a long article and it's creating a lot of buzz in certain circles. If you are a thinking person, or in anyway intellectually curious, you should read it. Here is a sampling:

"Americans began the summer still celebrating the dawn of a "post-racial" era. They are ending it under no such illusion. The summer of 2009 was all about race, beginning with Republican claims that Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama's nominee to the US Supreme Court, was "racist" against whites. Then, just as that scandal was dying down, up popped "the Gates controversy", the furore over the president's response to the arrest of African American academic Henry Louis Gates Jr in his own home. Obama's remark that the police had acted "stupidly" was evidence, according to massively popular Fox News host Glenn Beck, that the president "has a deep-seated hatred for white people".

Obama's supposed racism gave a jolt of energy to the fringe movement that claims he has been carrying out a lifelong conspiracy to cover up his (fictional) African birth. Then Fox News gleefully discovered Van Jones, White House special adviser on green jobs. After weeks of being denounced as "a black nationalist who is also an avowed communist", Jones resigned last Sunday.

The undercurrent of all these attacks was that Obama, far from being the colour-blind moderate he posed as during the presidential campaign, is actually obsessed with race, in particular with redistributing white wealth into the hands of African Americans and undocumented Mexican workers. At town hall meetings across the US in August, these bizarre claims coalesced into something resembling an uprising to "take our country back". Henry D Rose, chair of Blacks For Social Justice, recently compared the overwhelmingly white, often armed, anti-Obama crowds to the campaign of "massive resistance" launched in the late 50s – a last-ditch attempt by white southerners to block the racial integration of their schools and protect other Jim Crow laws. Today's "new era of 'massive resistance'," writes Rose, "is also a white racial project."

There is at least one significant difference, however. In the late 50s and early 60s, angry white mobs were reacting to life-changing victories won by the civil rights movement. Today's mobs, on the other hand, are reacting to the symbolic victory of an African American winning the presidency. Yet they are rising up at a time when non-elite blacks and Latinos are losing significant ground, with their homes and jobs slipping away from them at a much higher rate than from whites. So far, Obama has been unwilling to adopt policies specifically geared towards closing this ever-widening divide. The result may well leave minorities with the worst of all worlds: the pain of a full-scale racist backlash without the benefits of policies that alleviate daily hardships. Meanwhile, with Obama constantly painted by the radical right as a cross between Malcolm X and Karl Marx, most progressives feel it is their job to defend him – not to point out that, when it comes to tackling the economic crisis ravaging minority communities, the president is not doing nearly enough.

For many antiracist campaigners, the realisation that Obama might not be the leader they had hoped for came when he announced his administration would be boycotting the UN Durban Review Conference on racism, widely known as "Durban II". Almost all of the public debate about the conference focused on its supposed anti-Israel bias. When it actually took place in April in Geneva, virtually all we heard about was Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inflammatory speech, which was met with rowdy disruptions, from the EU delegates who walked out, to the French Jewish students who put on clown wigs and red noses, and tried to shout him down.

Lost in the circus atmosphere was the enormous importance of the conference to people of African descent, and nowhere more so than among Obama's most loyal base. The US civil rights movement had embraced the first Durban conference, held in summer 2001, with great enthusiasm, viewing it as the start of the final stage of Martin Luther King's dream for full equality. Though most black leaders offered only timid public criticism of the president's Durban II boycott, the decision was discussed privately as his most explicit betrayal of the civil rights struggle since taking office.

The original 2001 gathering was not all about Israelis v Palestinians, or antisemitism, as so many have claimed (though all certainly played a role). The conference was overwhelmingly about Africa, the ongoing legacy of slavery and the huge unpaid debts that the rich owe the poor.

Holding the 2001 World Conference against Racism in what was still being called "the New South Africa" had seemed a terrific idea. World leaders would gather to congratulate themselves on having slain the scourge of apartheid, then pledge to defeat the world's few remaining vestiges of discrimination – things such as police violence, unequal access to certain jobs, lack of adequate healthcare for minorities and intolerance towards immigrants. Appropriate disapproval would be expressed for such failures of equality, and a well-meaning document pledging change would be signed to much fanfare. That, at least, is what western governments expected to happen.

They were mistaken. When the conference arrived in Durban, many delegates were shocked by the angry mood in the streets: tens of thousands of South Africans joined protests outside the conference centre, holding signs that said "Landlessness = racism" and "New apartheid: rich and poor". Many denounced the conference as a sham, and demanded concrete reparations for the crimes of apartheid. South Africa's disillusionment, though particularly striking given its recent democratic victory, was part of a much broader global trend, one that would define the conference, in both the streets and the assembly halls. Around the world, developing countries were increasingly identifying the so-called Washington Consensus economic policies as little more than a clever rebranding effort, a way for former northern colonial powers to continue to drain the southern countries of their wealth without being inconvenienced by the heavy lifting of colonialism. Roughly two years before Durban, a coalition of developing countries had refused further to liberalise their economies, leading to the collapse of World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle. A few months later, a newly militant movement calling for a debt jubilee disrupted the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Durban was a continuation of this mounting southern rebellion, but it added something else to the mix: an invoice for past thefts.

Although it was true that southern countries owed debts to foreign banks and lending institutions, it was also true that in the colonial period – the first wave of globalisation – the wealth of the north was built, in large part, on stolen indigenous land and free labour provided by the slave trade. Many in Durban argued that when these two debts were included in the calculus, it was actually the poorest regions of the world – especially Africa and the Caribbean – that turned out to be the creditors and the rich world that owed a debt. All big UN conferences tend to coalesce around a theme, and in Durban 2001 the clear theme was the call for reparations. The overriding message was that even though the most visible signs of racism had largely disappeared – colonial rule, apartheid, Jim Crow-style segregation – profound racial divides will persist and even widen until the states and corporations that profited from centuries of state-sanctioned racism pay back some of what they owe..."

Sometimes we just "can't see the forest for the trees". Especially when we live in the forest.

86 comments:

I remember saying during the Presidential campaign that it worried me that Obama wasn't making any promises to African Americans.

That was always met with Obama wasn't running to be President of African America but America.

Then I would ask well why is it then that Obama made promises to every other group; unions, Jewish groups, Latinos, teachers, etc.

That question was always met with silence.

Now I am certainly no Republican and really can't imagine ever voting for one on a National level but the Democrats, Barack included, haven't been responsive to the needs of many Black people for a very long time.

Obama accepted Black support but didn't say what he would do in return. So now how can we demand anything when he didn't make any promises?

It's not too late though. We simply have to let him know now that we may stay at home on election day 2012 if he doesn't become more willing to look out for our interests as he has other constituent groups.

But we have to hurry because if we don't then we'll suffer through the first four years of his Presidency as the step-children we are now. And if he were to be re-elected without making us any promises then we'd be s*it out of luck for his second term as well.

@Monie - I noticed and said the same thing to those around me. I also noticed, he never addressed the "poor and underprivileged" - just the "middle class".

So, I was under no illusion and am not surprised by his actions or lack thereof today. I am, however, disappointed.

I understood there were some things he couldn't say or address, like race (political suicide) as a Black man. But I hoped he would address those things in policy.

I question some of the "advisers" he has surrounded himself with, the bail out of the bank and finance industry, bringing health and pharmaceutical insiders to the table to craft health care reform, etc.

I agree, we've got to let him know we are not to be overlooked, not even for political expediency. Obama said we should hold him accountable - if we don't, who are we to blame?

"Almost all of the public debate about the conference focused on its supposed anti-Israel bias. When it actually took place in April in Geneva, virtually all we heard about was Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inflammatory speech....Lost in the circus atmosphere was the enormous importance of the conference to people of African descent"

So Holocaust denial at an anti-racism conference is simply "inflammatory"? I wonder if the same wording would have been used if the President of a European country used the podium to say slavery never happened and it was simply a crutch black folks use to control whites. If all those black folks lost out they have no one to blame but Ahmadinejad. I don't see blacks getting all upset about that Muslim anti-Jewish racist. Since Africans and Arabs who participated in the "anti-racism" conference were the most indifferent to anti-Jewish hate speech they just made themselves look like hypocrits. If Africans want their issues to be addressed then show some respect for others. Any anti-racism conference that allows a Holocaust denier to have the platform isn't an anti-racism conference. But this is the same old- when Africans benefit from something they are willing to overlook any principles, even to the extent of rubbing elbows with Nazi's, if it benefits them. Yet if Jews were willing to run elbows with the KKK if it benefited them blacks would be the first to call them out. Africans need to speak out against anti Jewish racism as much as they expect Jews to do for them. And it doesn't happen. It's always a one way street with Africans

Yet if Jews were willing to run elbows with the KKK if it benefited them blacks would be the first to call them out. Africans need to speak out against anti Jewish racism as much as they expect Jews to do for them. And it doesn't happen. It's always a one way street with Africans

Given that we are in the mood to tell the truth, which is something I usually welcome, would now be the time to mention Israel's historic and close ties to the apartheid regime of South Africa? Nah, maybe not that much truth.

When Obama did not participate in Durban II that was not a good sign. It should have been a red flag for African Americans because it was a conference on racism.

This summer was all about racism but Obama has recently minimized its reality. Of course, Blacks as usual, have compensated by rationalizing that Obama 'can't' say anything about racism because it might make matters worse in America.

Blacks are a scattered and fearful group with no unity and little 'political will' to do much of anything. So why should the Democrats do anything for Blacks when they know Blacks will support them no matter what anyway?

Having Blacks in their party is 'political heaven' for the Dems because there is never anything owed to Blacks,--except maybe an inspirational speech of hope now and then.

Blacks can be suckers for words and no action... but it's been an accepted part of their culture for a long time.

I hear you Monie, and I hear you, as well, boukman70, but I'm reminded of one of President Obama's biggest criticisms from the wingnuts: Obama's healtcare program is designed to help blacks, and is the largest transference of wealth in our nation's history, from the haves to the havenots.

Whether that's so, or not, is immaterial. Healthcare reform, with a strong public option, and with provisions to reach down and scoop up the poorest among us and put them on the road to health again, can't be overlooked.

The poor among us can't rally and build a sustainable future if they're perennially sick.

The poor among us can't save for that rainy day, if they're using discretionary income to pay for a debilitating illness--and, for the poor, almost any illness is debilitating, if one can't afford the price to regain health.

Let me tell you a little story. A black woman came into the dentist office with what seemed her boyfriend; it might just as well have been her brother or some other family member.

You could tell from the grimace on her face that a tooth was giving her hell, and she needed immediate dental intervention.

You could also tell that she didn't have dental insurance, as her grimace grew as she learned the painful truth: she didn't have enough money to see a dentist, and would, in all likelihood, spend more hours in brutal agony until she could raise the necessary money.

They left, and headed for one of those Pay Day Loan establishments to seek an emergency outlay of cash, if they qualified.

Had they returned without the money, I would have paid for her visit myself. I'm not sure if they did, or didn't, as I was called in and prepped for my visit.

I offer that little story, not to relate a moment of compassion, but the need for healthcare reform, a reform that will help the middleclass as well as the poor.

Healthcare reform, if President Obama can get it passed (And we all have to pitch in and do our part: He's only as strong as our willingness to back him to assure its passage.) will be his greatest gift to black Americans, the poor, and ultimately to all Americans.

Just as we worked hard to get out the vote to elect Obama, we need to hound our senators and congresspersons, and remind them that special interest didn't put them office, the people did, and the people can remove them over the howls of any group who have paid them off to delay, or kill healthcare reform.

@Grinder: "Given that we are in the mood to tell the truth, which is something I usually welcome, would now be the time to mention Israel's historic and close ties to the apartheid regime of South Africa? Nah, maybe not that much truth."

What's the point, Grinder? Should I remind you that Israel wasn't the only country, that we, too, maintained "close ties to the apartheid regime of South Africa...."

I'm opposed to the suppression/oppression of people anywhere, by anyone.

We humans have been savagely cruel one to the other, and that cruelty is ubiquitous.

I'm more prepared to fight it no matter where it appears, rather than finger point to suggest that one nation is more adept at doing it than another.

I sometimes feel lost in the forest,I know racism when I see it and feel it,I don't look away and say it's all in my mind and I don't wake up in the morning looking for racism,but lord it seems to poke it's ugly head at me anyway.But the answer for combatting racism is complex,the people we seem to elect to fight for our cause seem to forget the reason and the folks who sent them to office.It's time we stop blaming others for our elected leaders failure to bring home the bacon.It's me and you who have to be held accountable for allowing our poltical leadership to send up scapple instead of bacon!

"It's time we stop blaming others for our elected leaders failure to bring home the bacon.It's me and you who have to be held accountable for allowing our poltical leadership to send up scapple instead of bacon!"

Amen to that!

Yes Gridner, let's talk about it.And let's talk about what Anon 1:03AM said as well.

"Now, Monie, in all fairness to the Democrats ... they haven't been responsive to anybody's needs for a very long time--outside of their corporate sponsorship, of course."

Boukman..I could not have said it better myself.

BD, you depressed me with that story about the lady who needed dental care.Now she is stuck with a 35% interest loan. :(

BTW, I am pretty sure that the "public option" will not be in any health care bill that passes.

After re-reading this morning's posts I couldn't help but think of a artist and song from my younger days Gil Scott Heron's,"Winter in America".We all had hope that the election of President Obama that things would begin to thaw in America,but my guess is it's still winter!

I continue to be confused at (some) people's surprise that the President is not "doing more for Black people." I think in this case we got the most honest and upfront politician end up in the White House than at any other time in modern history. He laid out explicitly his political agenda in his second book---and in it he was very centrist (not progressive) and he did not have a whole lot to say about race and racism.

That simply has not been a part of his agenda--at least not since his community organizing days.

But still We voted for him. And I doubt that many of us would rather we had not. Would the guy who was the alternative been better for Black folks? Would HRC have been?

I agree that we need to find a way to hold him and his administration accountable while also defending him against racist (and, increasingly, dangerous) attacks. This situation is new for us as a Black electorate, so we will just have to be imaginative and daring.

barnyardblacksheeplover said... "It's a long article and it's creating a lot of buzz in certain circles. If you are a thinking person, or in anyway intellectually curious, you should read it. Here is a sampling:

"FN, I hope you don't think that "anyway" qualifies as intellectually curious. It should read "any way". Intellectually inferior?"

an·y·way (ĕn'ē-wā') adv.In any way or manner whatever: Get the job done anyway you can.In any case; at least: I don't know if it was lost or stolen; anyway, it's gone.Nevertheless; regardless: It was raining but they played the game anyway.

[quote]Obama accepted Black support but didn't say what he would do in return. So now how can we demand anything when he didn't make any promises?[/quote]

When I hear such a framing I can't help but put it in terms of a WOMAN seeking a loyal male partner and a male who shows up on her door steps with his own agenda. The job of this FEMALE who has MORE TO LOSE than does the man is to SCRUTINIZE this man's INTENTIONS and only "put out" in accordance with HER OWN INTERESTS.

[quote]It's not too late though. We simply have to let him know now that we may stay at home on election day 2012 if he doesn't become more willing to look out for our interests as he has other constituent groups.[/quote]

Monie:

You are amazing to me. You really are.

Here I have been teasing Black Democrats, telling them that where as politicians put forth ISSUE ADS to other people so that they might sway their votes to one candidate or the other.......the Democrats only need to put forth "Get Out The Black People" ads into the Black community because they ALREADY KNOW what "The Black Voter" is going to do.

Here is your problem Monie - you have no perspective of INCUMBENCY. To look at the federal battle between the GOP and Democrats at the presidential and congressional level YET ignore the fact that in EVERY SINGLE BLACK COMMUNITY there are ONLY DEMOCRATS RUNNING THE SHOW leads to where you stand.

* Who is running the schools that you complain about?

* Who controls the police other than the mayor of your city?

* Who's policy theories shapes the business environment that is not producing jobs where you live?

I struggle to understand why the RHETORIC and POLICIES of the evil, racist Conservatives are any more damning and damaging to your interests than the people who ALREADY HAVE CONTROL.

* Do you expect MORE Black people to get shot on the streets if you change from supporting progressives?

* How much more screwed up can the Philadelphia school system get if non-progressives run them?

* With Buffalo and Milwaukee leading the way in Black Unemployment but also being a strong Democratic outpost - what exactly is your loyalty buying you?

The Black Quasi-Socialist Progressive-Fundamentalist Racism Chaser GAVE THE BLACK COMMUNITY over to the PROGRESSIVES. Now that they have total control and YOU ARE STILL NOT HAPPY - you now seek to NATIONALIZE the machine.

At what point do you go back and REINSPECT your assumptions which have failed so miserably at the local level rather than trying to scale it?

Now I am pissed at you Filled Negro. I had my original response to you lost when my computer crashed. Now I have to type it all over.

I told you in the other post that this morning I was catching up on my Progressive-Fundamentalist Monitoring. I watched Sept 14th edition of "Democracy Now" and your girl Naomi Klein was on there.

Naomi Klein makes the case that Rush Limbaugh's claim that Obama is rolling out Reparations for Slavery at a trick at a time is preposterous. She points to Reparationalist John Conyers as being pissed at Obama's lack of attention to Reparations as PROOF.

Ms Klein is clueless. She makes no note of what Van Jones, for example has noted. He told of his intention to put away his "Afro pick" and instead dawn a suit and work his destruction from the inside. Obama and Van Jones are no less committed to "Redistributionist Policies" - they just aren't going to pass a "White Man You Are Going To Pay Us A Check For Reparations" bill. She made a point to say that the pro-Reparations people are not asking for a check. She was too intellectually dishonest to make the case that the resentment behind Reparations are NOT driving many of the Progressive attacks upon Capitalism.

Naomi Klein is yet another "Snarling Fox White Liberal". I listened as she painted Black people as a "Poster Child who's leg was broken by our birth doctor which has never healed correctly".

She stated that the legacy of RACISM in the exclusion of Blacks to credit markets made us vulnerable to Subprime mortgages. What she fails to make note of is that, despite her hatred of Capitalism (she has a new book out on the subject) even her government centric alternatives to capitalism draw upon the CREDIT LINE that CAPITALISM has created.

I don't understand some of you.Evil Bush was attacked for walking out on the Racism Conference of 2001. His Black Secretary of State was called a Tom. Years later when OBAMA DID THE VERY SAME DAMNED THING - the attacks upon him were muted.

IS IT POSSIBLE that some of you are keying in upon your hatred of Republicans and Conservatives when in truth the system called "America" has certain vested interests that span the ideologies and parties?

[quote]Whether that's so, or not, is immaterial. Healthcare reform, with a strong public option, and with provisions to reach down and scoop up the poorest among us and put them on the road to health again, can't be overlooked.

The poor among us can't rally and build a sustainable future if they're perennially sick.[/quote]

Black Diaspora:

The more I read your words the more of a disgusting individual you express your self to be.

YOU SAY, in so many words, "The poor can't BUILD THEMSELVES UP if they are sick"

I struggle to see any possible scenario in which after you GIVING health care to 'the poor' that you will cut them loose and expect them to "HELP" themselves.

Instead, you and I both know, that today you will rain down health care upon them using EXTERNAL, CAPITALIST GENERATED RESOURCES to wash them clean AND THEN tomorrow you will be looking to feed them with some other resource with the intention of MAKING THEM WHOLE.

You are like standing in a bucket and trying to lift yourself up.

* WHERE are the "Least of These" that you care and feed which you turn into MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS so that they will have the medical knowledge to deliver these services?

* WHERE is your call for a more locally based FUNDING SOURCE where the "LEAST OF THESE" prioritize their HEALTH CARE SERVICES above other things that they might spend their money on?

LET'S BE HONEST WITH EACH OTHER BLACK DIASPORA - you have no damned intention of EVER seeing these people stand up on their own two feet. Instead you will be the "Serial Provider" for them. Inherent to your words above is the statement of these people's INFERIORITY AND FEEBLENESS.

I wonder if YOU ask them to state the intrinsic VALUE of their HEALTH rather than have SOCIETY recognize it.

You may be named "Black Diaspora" but CONSCIOUSNESS is no where contained within your theory.

[quote]But still We voted for him. And I doubt that many of us would rather we had not. Would the guy who was the alternative been better for Black folks? Would HRC have been?[/quote]

PPR_Scribe:

You put forth a FAKE binary choice.

Barack Obama is a MACHINE!!!This MACHINE already controls EVERY SINGLE INSTITUTION that presides over Black America where we live in our highest concentrations (our schools, our police forces, our business districts).

For you to attempt to make it an Obama vs McCain choice is the utmost of intellectual dishonesty.

In truth Barack Obama represents the scaling of the machine that you are frustrated with at the LOCAL LEVEL, having made it into the White House.

While you all who are Democrats make note that "Obama did not say much about Blacks on the campaign trail" ME - a Black man who's goal is to push the Democrats out of our RACIAL NUCLEUS and force them to COMPETE for our loyalties realized that, for example, with CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS ONLY graduating 52.5% of its minority students (the district is 87% Black and Hispanic) that it is UNLIKELY AS HELL that this same MACHINE that is failing Black People in CHICAGO is going to GO NATIONAL and do anything that is a radical departure from what they have done LOCALLY!!!!

PPR_Scribe YOU made this a choice between "McCain and Obama".

In truth we are fighting a fight of "ARE OUR BLACK PERMANENT INTERESTS BEING ADDRESS OR AIN'T THEY"???

Those who have more control over our INSTITUTIONS per our choice to yield our power to them need to be held more accountable.

INSTEAD Black folks have turned over the keys to these forces so that they can FIGHT OUTSIDE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS. They are now in power BECAUSE of your previous missteps and willingness to put your own permanent interests on the shelf and fight the fight against your ENEMIES rather than FOR YOUR BEST INTERESTS.

Your best interests are gathered LOCALLY. Once you figure out systems of delivery of these then you EXPAND THIS SUCCESS OUTWARD TO OTHER PEOPLE IN NEED.

Instead the Progressive-Fundamentalist has a bastardized view of things. He is going to FIX THE LOCAL SITUATION but GAINING EXPANSIVE POWER AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL and have it rain back down upon the masses. Then you get surprised that people WHO DON'T WANT TO BE IN YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY PLAN are resisting you.

The key question must be: WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT THE LOCAL LEVEL TO BRING YOUR PEOPLE WHO YOU DO HAVE CONTROL OVER TO BRING FORTH THEIR OWN BEST INTERESTS?

No one should be surprised that Obama is not doing anything for the black or the poor his agenda was obvious from the gitty. The irony of black folks getting little from his presidency other than backlash was also predictable.

What I find interesting now is that many white liberals are upset at Obama's perceived "wimpishness". They want Obama to get in there and ram his policies through in the same way that George Bush did when he was in office. They forget that Obama campained as the anti-Sharpton, the anti-Jesse. For him to start acting tough now would make him into an angry negro. He would lose a lot more support than he would gain. Oh no, the first black president better act humble and appreciative of the great honor white America has bestowed on him. Can't start getting uppity all of a sudden now can he?

I always thought this notion of a "post-racial America" was another concoction cooked up by the mainstream media.

It's clear what we saw during the summer of 2009 was a complete backlash against President Obama that was deeply rooted in his skin color, moderate-to-liberal ideas (socialist by conservative standards) and his race.

What's more puzzling (but not surprising) is how Obama's fellow Democratic Party has done nothing to counter the argument that their party is filled with socialists looking to indoctrinate school children with their ideas.

For the past three years, the Democratic Party has proven itself to be ineffectual when it comes to conservative activists attacking their base and their ideals.

Why don't you write about something important? Like how there's little chance of getting a climate initiative passed? Or maybe the fact that the banking/financial industry is going back to business as usual? This stuff is about as important as TMZ in comparison.

[quote]It's clear what we saw during the summer of 2009 was a complete backlash against President Obama that was deeply rooted in his skin color, moderate-to-liberal ideas (socialist by conservative standards) and his race. [/quote]

The New Black Woman:

As a Black man who fails to see the logic of hating an Health Care Insurance Industry which makes $15 billion per year in PROFITS while favoring as your new Health Insurance provider conglomerate which has an $1,800 billion DEFICIT I see the claim of RACISM as the primary driving the opposition to ObamaCare as laughable.

Instead I question why a people who can articulate their NEED FOR HEALTH CARE have not defined the key issue of "Minds and Money".

MINDS - What is the increase in BLACK PHYSICIANS from this same community that is in need of care will there be providing these needed services after receiving the advanced training to do so?

MONEY - If it is of our SOCIAL JUSTICE RIGHTS to receive such needed care why it is left to the greater society to fund this expansion? What is asked of the people who will be in direct receipt of these benefits?

This is why I seriously doubt the words of Black Diaspora. The CLAIM is that once "the poor" no longer has to worry about funding their own HEALTH CARE - they will be free to run at full speed with regard to fulfilling their other development needs. The same people who wish to GIVE them this vital entitlement will be there a at the next go round attempting to GIVE them something else in exchange for their vote.

Do these people sound as if they are seen as EQUAL HUMAN BEINGS? Why isn't the term and assumption "THE LEAST OF THESE" a RACIST or CLASSIST term of inferiorization?

We live in a capitalist society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Under capitalism, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The system naturally cators to the strong and rich and punishes the weak, vulnerable and poor.

It's capitalism. There can be no other outcome. Money and greed will always triumphs over human lives and the human conscience!

"...I also noticed, he never addressed the "poor and underprivileged" - just the "middle class"...."

Yeah that's true. I think to many people poor equals Black and so I think this was more of Obama trying to distance himself from Blackness for the benefit of some White voters.

------------------------------@boukman70

I agree. The Dems have been pretty lame for a while now. And being led by that Pelosi woman isn't helping anything at this point either.--------------------------------@Black Diaspora

"The poor among us can't rally and build a sustainable future if they're perennially sick...."

That's true and it's also true about the GOP strategy to paint health care reform as a Black thing.

But don't forget they tried to blame the housing market collapse on us too. So they are basically a one trick pony, everything wrong is a Black thing to them. That's nothing new.

The GOP knows that Obama doesn't want to address race so they paint every initiative they don't like as benefiting Blacks and Obama backs off.

So it comes back to Obama not wanting to acknowledge his Black constituents. If Obama would just acknowledge Black voters publicly and speak to our varying political needs that could potentially take a lot of the wind out of the GOP sails.

Then they (the GOP) would have to find a new strategy and by the time they did health care reform could be passed.-------------------------------@CF

I'm not giving a pass to anyone. So whether they are Black Dems or Republicans they don't automatically get a pass as you imply.

well, as far as jobs go, i think that when Beck and friends got Van Jones fired, it was just one more way to stonewall any creation of new jobs, they want this administration to fail, and that is the kind of tactics they are using. if Van Jones was in charge of something else, maybe he'd still be in the whitehouse. now, the administration suffered a setback and delays in green jobs by getting Van Jones fired, and it also helps further their cause of making the white house look scarey,like the way ab likes to do.

but what gwb and obama have done is LOWER that underclass to a SUB-under class

we have moved the masses from poor to destitute, from basic shelter to homelessness, from underemployment to unemployment, from crime to a prison industrial complex, from military workfare to permanent military corpses in perm wars!!!...

and that is what makes those who are wise enough to see a PERMANENT massive degrading of the general quality of life for most americans as "socialism"

iethis is the first generation of ELITES of all races who will NEVER fare as well academically or financially as their parents

"Almost all of the public debate about the conference focused on its supposed anti-Israel bias. When it actually took place in April in Geneva, virtually all we heard about was Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inflammatory speech....Lost in the circus atmosphere was the enormous importance of the conference to people of African descent"

The only public debate that bypassed perilous the nuclear threat that Iran was presenting with Amhmedinejad asking the US for more uranium for 'medical practice' and the discovery of a nuclear lab was that of Momar Kadafi ohh...wait..a man ALSO of African decent and where he was to pitch a damned tent near a bunch morons with a stick up their collective rich asses (didn't the US drop bombs on his home during the Raygun years killing his baby daughter let bygones be bygones and move the hell on.)

...oh and let us not forget him 'rambling and ranting' as whitey central news would put it calling Obama his 'son' followed by lowly insult of being a 'Kenyan', and all of this other irrelevant mess focused on him and cued to debase the man for having the balls to step out side of decorum and get some real shit off his chest...all while sporting a brooch of the African continent how disgraceful..

disgraceful as curious George sending his mouthpiece recess appointee Josh Bolton who spouted off about locking off the top 10 floors of the UN building and how little that would matter…however insignificant to where Kadaffi sleeps according to whitey central news.

I don't see blacks getting all upset about that Muslim anti-Jewish racist.

And yet there is one group that just can't seem to get enough sympathy from everyone for the rest of eternity to where if it is not rendered, you're against them...

How funny, because I don't see those same people who control most of mass media that’s propping up Obama, keeping him silent on the Jihad in Darfur which left over 400,000 dead/starving near the birthplace of his father and the residence of his grandmother railing and doing handstands either. Or really anyone else for that matter

I don't see they who own hollywood and mass media getting all upset about U.S. NON involvement, retracting their monetary investments into the 'Save Darfur' campaign and the non televised ads thereof, because it simply aint happenin, and the “Compromise” of the Security Council at the UN to feed these Jihadists, throwing a fit either.

Reporters, scholars and even US envoys returned YEARS ago from the region saying that if there ever was a genocide in Darfur, and there may not have been, there isn't one now..Is that not in some degree denying if not outright denying the holocaust of the Rwandans?

gee and they say we whine too much about the white man and reparations..

Any anti-racism conference that allows a Holocaust denier to have the platform isn't an anti-racism conference.

So true.. the Arab League Summit decided to back the (unspecified) measures which its Member, Sudan, has said it’s taken to improve the “humanitarian difficulties” in its Province of Darfur. Further, the EU and the new African Union each ruled that, despite lots of death and destruction, aint NO “genocide” transpiring here! I didn't really hear any mention of the mawali victims in Darfur or any updates on the Armenians or Cambodians...we were all too busy focusing on the Muslim terrorists vs. Jew ally downplay of the summit thanks to whitey central media for the Rwandan holocaust or anything else to really matter. Whoops!

Since Africans and Arabs who participated in the "anti-racism" conference were the most indifferent to anti-Jewish hate speech they just made themselves look like hypocrits.If Africans want their issues to be addressed then show some respect for others.

Hypocrisy as in being the UN's willingness to either DENY that the (potentially) millions of killings - Janjawid’s schemes - ever took place in Darfur or deem them all to have been “accidental”, “inadvertent”- let alone by their TRUE names: Genocide and Jihad (which the whitey central media REMAINS highly reluctant to brand them - almost like it’s some type of unspoken, “professional Taboo”).

Africans need to speak out against anti Jewish racism as much as they expect Jews to do for them.

Yes. Even if the citizens who’ll NOT benefit from any of that if they do or don't will still be the poor, doomed, marginalized, soon virtually EXTINCT people STILL subject to the cruel, Jihadi slayers in cahoots with pathetic old UN who tragically, sees no difference between the victim and the butcher any more?

Besides Africans speaking out against anti-Semitism and Jews speaking out for Africans will deflect the UN from counting upon the Arab League so much that, even if Darfur DOES come up to the Security Council, that they will no longer feel inclined to depend on France Russia &/or China (neither of whom normally abide encroachments on National Sovereignty) to veto any outside intervention!

I in no way deny the horrors of the holocaust nor feel that just one race has immensely suffered so much more than any other, but you can’t fairly expect someone to uphold truths on other peoples suffering while they sit back and let theirs be denied and trivialized…Africans have their own fish to fry concerning racism and speaking out against it as does every other race..

So let me get where everyone is going -- Obama is trying to make (VERY) moderate changes to get the US back on track (green jobs, healthcare reform, banking regulation) and you've got crazy white people ready to storm the Bastille with pitchforks and torches in hand (read: Tea Baggers, Town Hall meeting and 9/12 movement). The Glen Becks of the world are portraying Obama as a member of the Weather Underground trying to score reparations and force white people into interment camps.

So our answer -- go even further left? Normally I'm down for whatever, but that makes little to no political sense. Its like saying that if people think you're ghetto on your job & are trying to get you fired -- just come into your job and act REALLY ghetto. If Obama were to come out mau-mau, we all know he'd be shot.

So, the owness ain't on Obama to fix all our problems like a ghetto Superman. We tried that with the Clintons and it failed. Its time for us to get out into the streets and into our community and educate folks on the real deal. So long as we act as typical armchair activist, the inmates are not only running the asylum, they're ready to burn it to the ground.

I'm going to start with myself and join a local community organization. I can either complain about the tea baggers in the blogsphere or I can be about something.

Obama has disappointed many voters. The only reason I voted for Obama was to stop that bitch Sarah Palin from becoming Vice President. Yeah, I know it was petty of me to vote simply for him out of hate for Sarah Palin....lol

But never expected Obama to do a damn thing for my Black ass. Just like I never expected Clinton, Bush or Regan. When you Black in America you have to demand you rights we always had to and always will. I feel sorry for the poor bastards that thought Obama was the savior of the Black race. Obama has nothing to worry about Blacks will come out in droves to vote for his behind in 2012. I mean do you folks really believe Blacks will vote in huge mass for a Rush Limbaugh Republican party?

I'm not giving a pass to anyone. So whether they are Black Dems or Republicans they don't automatically get a pass as you imply.[/quote]

Monie:

If were to get any better at PASSING I'd believe you if you told me that you were STAYING HOME ON VOTING DAY because your non-melanted skin couldn't take the direct sunlight. NOT because you where protesting against the Democrats. :-/

[quote]"The poor among us can't rally and build a sustainable future if they're perennially sick...."

That's true and it's also true about the GOP strategy to paint health care reform as a Black thing.[/quote]

Monie - You are beginning to piss me off something serious. I'm talking about "Kid" and "Filled Negro" level.

THINK ABOUT IT. Let's go beyond party, race or nation for a second. YOU SAY that these PEOPLE are in need of HEALTH CARE.Despite the fact that they live in a nation that is at PEACE. A nation with an abundance of ACADEMIC RESOURCES. The fact that they are living in 2009 rather than 1809 where medical science was premature - YOUR KEY STRATEGY for helping these lowly, poor, decrepit "Least Of These People" that you care so much about is to VOTE THEM more resources?

Despite the favorable arraignment that you have on paper you protest that the biggest impediment to these people BECOMING IN RECEIPT OF HEALTH CARE are the EVIL, RACIST REPUBLICANS who don't want to SHARE rather than the IGNORANT people who see them as the "Inferior 90%"? (or the Untalented 90%).

Monie - you can destroy every single Republican - as what has functionally happened in Detroit, Newark, Buffalo and Philly. THIS STILL does not translate into automatic GOOD TIDINGS for the Black people who just luv themselves some Democrats.

At what point do you switch your rationale upon those who STAND AGAINST YOU (even when they MOVE THE HELL AWAY FROM YOU) over to WHY, NOW THAT YOU HAVE MORE CONTROL OVER THE AREAS THAT YOU SOUGHT TO CONTROL FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS - THE FATE OF THE PEOPLE YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HAS NEVER BEEN MORE PERILOUS DURING THIS TIME FRAME?

[quote]But don't forget they tried to blame the housing market collapse on us too. So they are basically a one trick pony, everything wrong is a Black thing to them. That's nothing new.[/quote]

With all due respect Monie - I don't think that you could articulate for us WHAT HAPPENED during this housing bubble as HOUSING WAS CAPITALIZED and the mix between some people who sought PROFIT versus others who simply wanted a place to live that matches their fixed income proved to be a deadly combination.

[quote]The GOP knows that Obama doesn't want to address race so they paint every initiative they don't like as benefiting Blacks and Obama backs off.[/quote]

You know Monie - the PAINFUL corollary to this sentiment by WHITE FOLKS can be found in your earlier BELLY ACHING about how YOU WERE NOT GETTING OUT OF OBAMA WHAT YOU VOTED FOR. Why is it that the white folks are EVIL when they do WHAT YOU JUST ADMITTED TO DO??????

[quote]So it comes back to Obama not wanting to acknowledge his Black constituents. If Obama would just acknowledge Black voters publicly and speak to our varying political needs that could potentially take a lot of the wind out of the GOP sails.[/quote]

Monie - THE FREAKING DEMOCRATS HAVE THE PRESIDENCY, 60 VOTES IN THE SENATE, A SOLID MAJORITY IN THE HOUSE and CONTROL OVER EVERY FREAKING BLACK COMMUNITY IN THE NATION!!!!!!!!

WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING ABOUT WHAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING????Are you this neurotic in person? DAMN!!!

AB: I realize that you are a school teacher. Just as I know FN is tutor. Until I moved to LA (a serious of bizarre events, hence the tag) I was a Sunday School teacher for years and was active in the Green Party for 4 years. The comment was not addressed to you in particular. --

My problem is the armchair leftist who complains Barak Obama isn't living up to his end of the bargain but refuse to even get to know their neighbors go to a city council meeting. The teabaggers and birthers are so hate-filled, incoherent and violent they're barely registering as human anymore.

But, THEY SHOW UP!

When was the last time you saw progressives en masse engaging the community beyond their vegan New Age Buddha cipher? Or mount a coherent campaign? When or how did we use the outrage from Katrina to mobilize to the streets?

My point is you can bitch and whine the O-man all you want. You can complain that no one listens to us. But if we as Black folks don't speak up for ourselves no one will listen.

If we as progressive Black thinkers aren't willing to get are hands dirty, then we are looking for Obama to be a ghetto Superman to our Jimmy Olsen -- fight the bad guys while we chill out in the cut.

Why are people under that the illusion that under a health care reform bill, poor blacks will suddently start going to the physicians offices in droves? Newsflash!!! Blacks are the most medically noncompliant mofo's on the planet!!!!

My BIG concern is that with free health care, the non eating/exercising folks are gonna weigh down the system with their plethora of medical issues stemming from those unhealthy lifestyle choices including heart disese, cancer, and diabetes.

And I'm supposed to foot the healthcare bill with my tax money for folks like this? Awww Hell naw!!!!

Free health care is NEVER going happen in the US. Why? Because there's too much money made from people being sick and dying.

Fly: I feel you but there are two things for that. One way we can pay for free healthcare is a junk food tax -- tack on an extra 0.03 for every dollar spent on McDonald's Big Mac. Cut or at least restructure farm subsidies that favor mass farmed soy, corn and wheat as well as GMO's, dairy and meat. Again, we have to take the initiative to make change.

@Monie: "The GOP knows that Obama doesn't want to address race so they paint every initiative they don't like as benefiting Blacks and Obama backs off."

Good point, and I'm willing to concede that your way of going forward may be best for Obama, but I'm also prepared to say: Pushing for real healthcare reform is also "backing off" going forward.

I don't care if President Obama identifies any of his proposal as written specifically for blacks, as long as blacks are recipients, and their lives are meaningfully impacted.

I'm aware of the forces swirling about him, and how cautiously he must tread to appease friends and oppose foes.

It's a tightrope act very few presidents have had to navigate high above the political landscape, because none have been black, and few have had to contend with pleasing both sides of the racial divide.

White presidents didn't have to face this dilemma--white gain and black loss--(except in conscience) because their political future, and political survival didn't hinge on appeasing blacks as one of their major constituencies.

That they wanted our votes as that extra assurance, as the icing on the cake, no doubt, but they didn't actually have to have us, if a sufficient number of whites saw eye to eye with them politically.

And I agree: We should hold the feet of all politicians to the fire, bathe them in fire if that's what it takes, rather than hope for outcomes we may favor.

I'm all for proactive politics.

Americans need to wrest the reins of government from those whose governance benefits the big wallets, at the expense of the small coinage of the average voter.

FlyNMY40'S, I don't know who you are but, you seem to be a Cold person! you can eat all the Healthy food, your money can buy and drop dead eating your healthy food or haven't you heard? it's called LIFE! and a poor person can eat all the wrong food and live to be Hundred!

You can look down on the poor and needy and in a second, you can be standing in the UNEMPLOYMENT line with the people you are looking down on, it's called LIFE!

You better Pray that HEALTH CARE BILL will PASS!!! because you are a good candidate for learning about LIFE! you better Pray that each and every one of those Democratic Senator's vote YES on the Public Option! for you have no idea what life hold's, you can have the best job and good Health Insurance and it can all be wiped away in the blink of an eye, that's called LIFE! many people have lost job's in America, they were probably like you, but, look at them now, we see them on the new's all the time, some are ashamed of their circumstance's but, that's LIFE, we learn as we go, God will make sure of that! it's called LIFE!

"The more I read your words the more of a disgusting individual you express your self to be.

"Instead, you and I both know, that today you will rain down health care upon them using EXTERNAL, CAPITALIST GENERATED RESOURCES to wash them clean AND THEN tomorrow you will be looking to feed them with some other resource with the intention of MAKING THEM WHOLE."

Yeah, CF, I am one of those "disgusting individual[s]" you rail against, who actually care about the welfare of people, rich and poor, stupid, and intelligent, and yes, Republicans in denial, and Democrats, and any other party flavors.

And yeah, I'm willing to pay more in taxes, if that's what it's going to take, to make it happen.

And I'm not going to take refuge behind a "personal responsibility" stratagem to deny healtcare to the masses.

There are too many permutations, and too many intricacies to address in this society to throw all people to the ravages of "personal responsibility," and say, either you get your own, or go without.

CF, I'm just not as socially hardened as you. I see life through lens through which you apparently can't see.

I will feed the hungry, and heal the sick, whether they take personal responsibility for it, or not.

"Free health care is NEVER going happen in the US. Why? Because there's too much money made from people being sick and dying."

I hear your concerns. But no one, and I emphasize, no one, is living a healthy lifestyle. Some are living what they believe to be a healthy lifestyle, incredibly spartan in dietary practices.

And money will still be made from the sick with or without healthcare reform, it just won't be in the hands of those who profit insanely through plans that are designed to treat the healthy (and occasionally ill), and not the very sick.

Unlike you, I'm willing to pay more in taxes to provide for all, including those you believe aren't all that health conscience.

A good healthcare system will emphasize better health care choices, and not just treat the symptoms, but the causes.

Here's the dilemma. We can identify some poor health care choices, but there are others not so identifiable, many which the government sanctioned, at the expense of our health, and corporations are allowed to benefit, and grow wealthy as a result.

Our environment is unsafe: pollutants abound. And our food is not always as safe as is claimed.

I don't have time to debate this at length, but to say this: We protect unhealthy businesses (and common folks), giving them incredible choices about their current and future financial health, despite management styles, and healthy, or unhealthy, personal or business choices or practices, and we call it "bankruptcy."

Yet, when it comes to people, we're reluctant to extend the same choices for a healthy physical future to those upon which this government fully relies--a healthy populace.

Word verification "ignant." Looking for a laugh, not pointing fingers.

My question to you is if you KNOW HOW TO "Make the HUNGRY 'UN-HUNGRY'. NOT because they show up in your soup line every damned day for you to pat their heads but instead because YOU have developed an ORGANIC SYSTEM for them to apply their productive efforts in line with their need to eat".

Ironically, Black Diaspora, in your guise of Altruism and Benevolence you actually look at the people that you want to FEED in disgust and pity. The idea of asking them to WANT TO LIVE 'hard enough' that they are willing to alter their actions to be in line with such goals of perpetuation is TOO GREAT OF A BURDEN FOR THEM......in YOUR perverted view of them.

You say "Blacks' lives are MEANINGFULLY IMPACTED"? Aside from VOTING FOR THE BENEFIT - WHAT DO "BLACKS HAVE TO DO" to obtain this enhanced benefit? Are there any enhanced capabilities that are developed or, as I suspect, you are looking for ENHANCED LOYALTIES AND DEPENDENCIES among Black people?

[quote]That they wanted our votes as that extra assurance, as the icing on the cake, no doubt, but they didn't actually have to have us, if a sufficient number of whites saw eye to eye with them politically.[/quote]

* The BLACK VOTE - a token of VALUE as bestowed by the government system that we live within, expressing everyone's VOICE in society

But what about:

* BLACK MINDS??? - How many BLACK individuals will have their BRAINS be trained in the medical discipline in your plan and thus offering service to BLACK PEOPLE in need of care in THEIR OWN COMMUNITY?

* BLACK FINANCIAL RESOURCES???? - You can articulate the BENEFIT that will be rained down upon "the poor and the LEAST OF THESE" with them needing to do nothing more than stand there. What do you ASK OF THE COMMUNITY who will receive this benefit that is in line with their own VALUATION of these services and their lives?

The name is "black diaspora" gives some imagery about CONSCIOUSNESS about Black people living in southern Africa, western Africa, eastern Africa, South America, the Caribbean. The key irony is that few of these people can VOTE THEMSELVES SOME HEALTH CARE as you propose!!! Thus, what you propose for the American Negro's health care has ZERO applicability to any other Black outside of this CAPITALISTIC NATION where they ARE NOT ABLE TO VOTE to redirect private property that is within their national borders in support of their health care.

Black Diaspora - a frat brother of mine sent to me the list from 100 years ago entitled "12 Things The Negro Must Do For Himself" asking my opinion. I answered that the key evidence of our progress as a people will be when we TURN DOWN certain entitlements that were arraigned for us to consume from OUTSIDE FORCES because we are CONSCIOUS of the harm that they cause to our culture and our consciousness.

You are a walking violation of such consciousness, Black Diaspora. What was the benefit of gaining control over our local communities by the favorable political forces for you when you STILL are looking outward for your basis sustenance?

@CF: "Ironically, Black Diaspora, in your guise of Altruism and Benevolence you actually look at the people that you want to FEED in disgust and pity."

You don't know me. Why do you presume to speak for me?

I'm not altruistic or benevolent. Yes, I would feed hungry people, not for their thanks, I need none, and not because I find them pitiable or disgusting.

I would feed them, because I would feed me if I'm hungry, and for no other reason.

"The idea of asking them to WANT TO LIVE 'hard enough' that they are willing to alter their actions to be in line with such goals of perpetuation is TOO GREAT OF A BURDEN FOR THEM......in YOUR perverted view of them."

You're very good at telling me what I think, aren't you? If you really knew what I thought, you'd be amazed. Not only would you stand in total disbelief, but you'd find me well outside the world you've grown accustomed to.

I need nothing from you, or anyone else. You have nothing you can give me that I don't already have.

And people can live anyway they choose. In that, I have no preference. In that, I have no requirements.

"BLACK MINDS??? - How many BLACK individuals will have their BRAINS be trained in the medical discipline in your plan and thus offering service to BLACK PEOPLE in need of care in THEIR OWN COMMUNITY?"

I have no plan for people. Do you? I don't want people trained in anything. People can do pretty damn well as they choose. Haven't you noticed: They're doing it now, even as I write.

I can't change that, and neither can you. But you have a need to do so. I don't. I take people just as they are.

"BLACK FINANCIAL RESOURCES???? - You can articulate the BENEFIT that will be rained down upon "the poor and the LEAST OF THESE" with them needing to do nothing more than stand there."

Well stated. You're right: I don't require people to do anything, other than what they're presently doing. What do you require of them? And if you have requirements, how do you propose to enforce those requirements?

"Thus, what you propose for the American Negro's health care has ZERO applicability to any other Black outside of this CAPITALISTIC NATION where they ARE NOT ABLE TO VOTE to redirect private property that is within their national borders in support of their health care."

I have no need to save people. And yes, I'd give everybody healthcare if I could, here and beyond these shores. Why? Because I'd give myself healthcare.

"You are a walking violation of such consciousness, Black Diaspora. What was the benefit of gaining control over our local communities by the favorable political forces for you when you STILL are looking outward for your basis sustenance?"

I think what we are seeing in this debate between CF and BD is a true teachable moment. For those of you reading their comments in a dispassionate, levelheaded, and andequanimous manner; choose your sides. I know which side I am on.

Sorry [un]consrtructive one. We tried your way of doing things, and I have a news flash for you; it didn't work.

[quote]We tried your way of doing things, and I have a news flash for you; it didn't work.[/quote]

YOU TRIED THINGS YOUR WAY (Punk) and it not only "Didn't work":

* It DESTROYED Southwest Philly and North Philly* It DESTROYED The School System In Philadelphia* It DESTROYED the Jobs In Camden, Newark and Chester* It left numerous Black people DEAD in Chicago and Cleveland* Though the two most poor parts of Atlanta are where the largest number of Campaign Signs For Democrats Reside - THEY ARE STILL POOR despite the monopoly

CORRECTION!!!!

WE HAVE TRIED THINGS YOUR WAY FILLED NEGRO. Black people did not fully appreciate that the leadership had SOLD OUT to an ideology and a party. They told us that IF we linked up with these external forces THEN our BLACK PERMANENT INTERESTS would be addressed.

NOW after them having been given POWER over EVERY SINGLE INSTITUTION that Black people look toward for our civic services........YOU want to tell ME that YOU have "TRIED IT MY WAY"????

WHAT DRUGS HAVE FRIED YOUR BRAIN FILLED NEGRO?

I should have known better though based on who you are.

The DEFFENSE ATTORNEY for a former cop that killed his wife and a Mexican day laborer that he attempted to blame his wife's murder on was just captured in the nation of Belize after running from the law. THE DEFENSE ATTORNEY said "Mr Yancey didn't believe that he would receive a fair trial in Dekalb County so he got out of a situation where the deck was stacked against him.

Filled Negro - I sat, watching the television with my eyes aghast. REGARDLESS of what the FACTS are - leave it up to a DEFENSE ATTORNEY to PAINT HIS OWN PICTURE regardless of how much the TRUTH has been bludgeoned in the process.

I need to load the video clip for you so you can see your peer at work.

[quote]You don't know me. Why do you presume to speak for me?[/qutoe]YOUR WORDS say all that I need to know about YOU.

[quote]I would feed them, because I would feed me if I'm hungry, and for no other reason.[/quote]

They are EQUAL ADULT HUMAN BEINGS.Why aren't you curios as to WHY THEY ARE HUNGRY?

As you run your soup line and you saw a patron with a "5th of Jack" in his back pocket each morning, noon and evening that he showed for his daily feeding from you - I question if you would challenge him on his HABIT that has caused him to separate from his wife and kids and now take up company with YOU - one ladel of soup at a time.

You see Black Diaspora - (based on your words) YOU are aruging for MAINTENANCE. I am arguing for TRANSFORMATION. With the assumption that we are dealing with EQUAL HUMAN BEINGS in your soup line - I question how your strategy does anything other than insure that THEY TELL SOMEONE ELSE HOW TASTY THE MEAT AND VEGETABLES IN YOUR SOUP ARE and that both of them should vye to get in front of the line each day so that they get first dibs at the whole pieces. When the soup gets to the bottom then they are served broken potatoes and mashed carrots.

[quote]You're very good at telling me what I think, aren't you? [/quote]YOUR WORDS are my pathway to understanding you.

[quote]I need nothing from you, or anyone else. You have nothing you can give me that I don't already have.[/quote]

NEVER ASKED ANYTHING OF YOU, (dude or dear). I have ONLY asked that you take a step back from your THEORIES and ask yourself "HOW DOES A GREAT PEOPLE SYNERGIZE FROM YOUR AGENDA?"

[quote]And people can live anyway they choose. In that, I have no preference. In that, I have no requirements.[/quote]

Dear/Dude: YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!! LIVE AS THEY CHOOSE!!!!

BUT, BUT, BUT, BUT, BUT if their LIFESTYLE CHOICES DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT support their NEEDS for Nutrtition, Healthy Results, Educational Attainment and Public Safety - then all YOU DO is set YOURSELF UP for THEIR CARE TAKER!!!

Black Diaspora - I took my family to the zoo for Labor Day. I saw ANIMALS. The zoo keeper was obliged to feed them, clean the poop out of their cages and set up an environment that closely approximated what they were used to in Austrailia, South America, Africa or the plains of North America. THIS IS ALL THAT IS EXPECTED OF THESE ANIMALS!!!! They will do their part AND JUST LIVE.

HUMANS ARE 'HIGH ORDER ANIMALS' just as " THE GOD THAT I BELIEVE IN has made us to be". (I realize that Filled Negro if a defense attorney and thus worhships the devil so he will just have to work with me on this one)

[quote]I have no plan for people. Do you? I don't want people trained in anything.[/quote]

YES I HAVE A PLAN!!!!!In the evil corporation that I work for I am asked to WATCH BUSINESS PROCESSES so that I can understand what makes a GROUP OF PEOPLE who are assembled as a "company" tick. I make determinations about their MISSION STATEMENTS and see if their DAILY, REPETITIVE ACTIONS are in line with this.

My PLAN FOR BLACK PEOPLE is to understand WHAT WE ARE BEHOLDEN TO and WHY - despite having a FAVORABLE POLITICAL ORDER IN PHILLY - Filled Negro is STILL GRIEVING about the situation there (and in YEADON PA as well). WE WERE TOLD THAT IT WAS ALL GOING TO GET BETTER once "FAVORABLE PEOPLE replaced RIZZO!!!!!!!".

Now the wheels are falling off and the SAME OPERATIVES who lead us along have suffered NOTHING!!! They now want us to GO NATIONAL and DO THE SAME DAMNED THING!! (Try HARDER).

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone needs to be held accountable for what happened at the lower plateau of the mountain before I agree to push anyone up the mountain by supporting their behind as they step over me.

I only want a TRANSPARENT SYSTEM that all who CLAIM to have the best interests of the Black Community to submit to.

Today we operate based upon popularity. The evidence if its accuracy is based on the head count of Black folks that support the agenda.

When they gain power and things don't change this same numerically superior group also are allowed to define what went wrong and what their follow-up act will be. They don't miss a beat nor suffer any consequences from this.

This is a gross violation of all MANAGEMENT SCIENCE principles. Those who are more interested in EFFECTIVENESS rather than rolling over someone else must commit to their PERMANENT INTERESTS and then dispassionately step back and analyze the results based on this framing.

Me personally - I am not willing to ignore the power that the Black Establishment has over our local communities that they have built up while I keep marching as they now take on the national order. I want to go back and make note of the promises that were made and WHY they were not fulfilled.

I don't need to agree with you on methodology. I only need to have us agree on the GOALS and the MEASUREMENT of our forward progress and the openness to trying something different IF after "trying harder at the same thing" has not worked.

This AIN'T ABOUT ME!!Please note that despite Filled Negro attempting to make me out to be an Evil Republican - you will find not one sentence in this message thread in which I have lifted up the Evil Republican party. Please note as well, however, that Black Democrats have NO SUCH RESTRICTIONS as being the BEST DEMOCRAT THEY CAN BE. Why aren't THEY called "sellouts" - especially when this force has power over our community yet our PERMANENT INTERESTS remain unsettled in these same places?

We need a transparent framework for evaluation of our strategy. Those who are SOLD OUT cannot be in a leadership position - REGARDLESS of how agreeable they might be to either of our sentiments. They are going to only, always seek the advantage of that which they are sold out to.

The only thing that the so-called "Constructive" commentator is skilled in is monopolizing and astroturfing a debate. Making himself so loud and so common that the only voice that is heard is his. Monopolizing the comments page with essay-style screeds and tomfoolery. Alicia Banks does the same, only in a more....eccentric fashion.

Black Diaspora - I took my family to the zoo for Labor Day. I saw ANIMALS. The zoo keeper was obliged to feed them, clean the poop out of their cages and set up an environment that closely approximated what they were used to in Austrailia, South America, Africa or the plains of North America. THIS IS ALL THAT IS EXPECTED OF THESE ANIMALS!!!! They will do their part AND JUST LIVE.

I'm sure you'd love to see these young Blacks in the same captive conditions as the animals you saw in the zoo. This is to be expected of a race of people who see Blacks in the same manner they see chimpanzees. A hold-over of the mental conditioning needed for Whites to be able to stand forcefully using Blacks as slave labor during times past.

Then who's it about, if not about you? For all your ranting, the conditions that you find intolerable for blacks still exist.

And yet, you believe that your many words here will change that.

They won't.

Let me see if I've got this right. If you did decide to feed, and provide healthcare for people, you'd use those opportunities to "transform" them, to examine why they needed your largess in the first place, and you'd fix them.

Am I right so far?

You want local governance to be "transparent," so that it would reveal what was hidden by its opacity, and people would transform it, based on that sudden knowledge.

Am I right so far?

And the solution to all of this is what: Conservative values acted upon?

And what party should we embrace that has these conservative values?

Republican? Democrat?

CF, it's a great deal easier to come here and attack, mainly liberals, for what you believe are our shortcomings, than it is to actually get your hands dirty to bring about those "transformations."

It's a great deal easier to "talk the talk," than it is to "walk the walk."

CF, you're a talker. Now, if you really want to impress me, "walk the walk."

Mack Lyons said ..."This is to be expected of a race of people who see Blacks in the same manner they see chimpanzees. A hold-over of the mental conditioning needed for Whites to be able to stand forcefully using Blacks as slave labor during times past."

We are all one race, but of different colors and we can and do find any and many excuses to abuse each other by slavery neither now nor then was the exclusive province of one "color."

"A few years ago, National Geographic reported that there were over 27 million slaves in the world today -- more than any other time in human history."

See http://forpeace.net/blog/ethan-vesely-flad/slavery-now-more-ever

But any people "that cannot defend themselves are not truly free, merely fortunate." J. Norman We have huge numbers of people in this country that exist at the whims of our overclasses, perhaps if they were better fed, educated and medicated like Black Diaspora would like, perhaps then they would be able to focus more on the political and self realization goals that Constructive Feed back wants.

@Fly: "Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish, they eat for a lifetime.

"I'm just saying................."

Love the saying Fly. Ideally, people would fend for themselves, and that would be preferable to handouts.

But remember: No fish, no fishing.

I'm aware we're coming from totally different perspectives. And there are many who embrace your perspective (no handouts on healthcare), CF included.

And I'd be remiss if I told you that your perspective is wrong. It's not. It's just another perspective, one among millions.

Because I love myself, I could no more allow another to go hungry, or suffer needlessly, because they neglected to provide for themselves.

CF suggests that he would. He hasn't been too clear on this point.

Nor would I deny those who're desperately in need of food or healthcare (through no fault of their own), simply because of the excesses of a few bad apples (as some might perceive those living non-sustainable lifestyles).

Frankly, as you already know: I wouldn't condition people at all.

That doesn't make me good, and you bad; it's just another way of looking at the same picture.

Follow your own conscience: Be true to yourself on this or any other issue.

Black Diaspora said...Ideally, people would fend for themselves, and that would be preferable to handouts........I'm aware we're coming from totally different perspectives. And there are many who embrace your perspective (no handouts on healthcare), CF included.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Actually, I'm not saying no to freebe's and handouts. What I'm saying "No" to are handouts/freebe's without personal responsibility.

From where I'm sitting there is NO personal responsibility required in what you propose from free health care to free food. Would you give a starving 250lb person a free meal because they were hungry because I would not. Nor would I give free health care to a 2 cigarette pack a day smoking, junk food junkie. I'd give them some dietary suggestions, some nicorette, or maybe a free pass to the gym. In other words, I'm about solutions not putting a band aid on the problem.

Now if after they had their work out they wanted a meal, or tired nicorette and failed, NOW I can help. IMHO, too many times Black folks help each be codependant in all things negative which is one of the many reasons why American Blacks as a group will never advance.

"I'd give them some dietary suggestions, some nicorette, or maybe a free pass to the gym. In other words, I'm about solutions not putting a band aid on the problem."

I have no problem with that.

Nothing I've said would prohibit social efforts to turn people's lives around, to give them the counseling, the support, or whatever is needed to put them on the road to recovery, or on a path to a positive lifestyle.

I just wouldn't condition healthcare or ration it based on behavior.

We have a higher responsibility to uphold, and a much grander person to answer to: Our self.

Black Diaspora said...It would take more money to probe into the lifestyles of each person to qualify each person, than it would be to just provide heathcare to all.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Probe into peoples lifestyles? Are you kidding me? How much probing does one need to do to realize that almost every 200+ pound female eats too much? Ever seen anyone high? Don't need much "probing" to figure that one out eithe. A simple 40 dollar lung function test, much like the one I do as an asthmatic, and a good sniffer can fish out a smoker in a New York minute.

People living these unhealthy lifestyles without any noticible effort to change SHOULD be excluded form receiveing ANY free health care IMHO. Besides, if they have the cash to regularily buy a pack a smokes, then they can fund their own lung cancer treatment too.

Someone mentioned a junk food tax and I do NOT agree with that either. I sensibly eat junk food all the time and maintain a healthy weight which is extremely hard to do in my 40's. Why should I be penalized for showing self-control when others won't?

@Fly: "People living these unhealthy lifestyles without any noticible effort to change SHOULD be excluded form receiveing ANY free health care IMHO. Besides, if they have the cash to regularily buy a pack a smokes, then they can fund their own lung cancer treatment too."

And that's how many people see it, just as you see it. And that's okay.

And I have responded to this in a post upthread. Here's what I said:

No one, and I emphasize, no one, is living a healthy lifestyle. Some are living what they believe to be a healthy lifestyle, incredibly spartan in dietary practices.

Here's the dilemma. We can identify some poor health care choices, but there are others not so identifiable, many which the government sanctioned, at the expense of our health, and corporations are allowed to benefit, and grow wealthy as a result.

Our environment is unsafe: pollutants abound. And our food is not always as safe as is claimed.

I don't have time to debate this at length, but to say this: We protect unhealthy businesses (and common folks), giving them incredible choices about their current and future financial health, despite management styles, and healthy, or unhealthy, personal or business choices or practices, and we call it "bankruptcy."

Yet, when it comes to people, we're reluctant to extend the same choices for a healthy physical future to those upon which this government fully relies--a healthy populace.

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